MOVIE REVIEW

Soft in the Head

We begin with a drunk Natalia (Sheila Etxeberría) pleading with her abusive boyfriend. The wavering camera stays right in her sweaty face, avoiding the guy’s reactions in favor of arms and shoulders jutting across the lens.

The obviously improvised, repetitive dialogue sounds like it was recorded from an adjoining bathroom stall.

Interesting, albeit obvious, choices for a drunk scene — until it becomes clear that no, this is how director Nathan Silver intends to shoot his entire movie. Natalia, who’s quite the young trainwreck, winds up in an unofficial shelter run by saintly Maury (Ed Ryan). Etxeberría’s performance focuses on the many ways she can push and tousle her hair.

Carl Kranz, as a possibly autistic boy enamored of Natalia, offers his scenes some heart. But “Soft in the Head’’ is drab, ramshackle stuff — up in everyone’s face, and finding very little there.